HDFC Securities has given Reduce recommendation for Jubilant FoodWorks with a target price of Rs. 2500 in its research report issued on Feb 22, 2021
HDFC Securities’ research report on Jubilant FoodWorks
Jubilant FoodWorks (JFL) announced the acquisition of Fides Food Systems Coöperatief U.A., Netherlands (Fides) for GBP 24.8mn (INR 2.5bn). Fides is the beneficial owner of 32.81% of equity shares of DP Eurasia N.V. (DP Eurasia). DP Eurasia is the exclusive master franchisee of the Domino’s Pizza brand, having 771 stores in Turkey, Russia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. It is listed with London Stock Exchange PLC. DP Eurasia has weak financials (due to operational losses in ex-Turkey, financial leverage and currency impact) resulting in a crack in its stock price over the past 3 years (GBX 250 in 2018 to GBX 70 now). The deal is valued at 8x EV/EBITDA of CY19. Although this deal seems to be financially neutral in the medium term, it offers more strategic rationale for JFL. The most interesting aspects of this deal are (1) attractive valuation, (2) potential to revive loss making business, (3) JFL’s expertise in running Domino’s vs. P/E player, (4) stronger global footprint (control of >2,000 Domino’s stores, second highest to Domino’s Australia), and (5) synergy in terms of technology, sourcing, etc. JFL management is consistently seeking an ‘out of the box’ approach to add growth levers. The company has already added more legs of growth in the existing business in terms of Hong’s, Domino’s Bangladesh, and Ekdum!, and is ambitious for a faster store opening for Domino’s. Considering its strong FCFs, reinvestment spree was always on cards, which is why the stock has seen this rerating. Capital allocation is a more critical aspect as we have noticed that many companies have de-rated after wrongly allocating capital. Considering DP Eurasia will continue with the existing management, it would not consume JFL’s management bandwidth for operations.